Gruden almost became Oregon's offensive coordinator

Thursday

Dec 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2009 at 6:37 PM

Bill Rabinowitz here again. I'd read that Chip Kelly was interested in hiring Jon Gruden as his offensive coordinator. When Gruden showed up at today's final pre-game press conferences, I asked him whether that was true.

“There’s some truth to that,” he said.

Gruden is in L.A. to serve as an analyst on ESPN's radio broadcast of the Rose Bowl. When he saw Kelly, the two embraced in a big hug. (Jim Tressel also greeted Gruden warmly when the Buckeyes' coach saw him as he entered the room.)

Gruden joked that when he was fired as Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach after last season, he opened an office and called it the FFCA (Fired Football Coaches of America). He was determined to broaden his football knowledge and his first stop was meeting with Kelly to learn about Oregon’s spread option offense. He and Kelly spent a long day poring over Xs and Os on a greaseboard in March.

“A couple weeks later,” Gruden said, “he called me up and said, ‘Look, how ‘bout you come out here and spend a year with us learning the spread.’ I almost did it.”

Gruden said he turned Kelly down because his nerves were still frayed from being fired and his wife was hardly eager to move from Tampa to Eugene, Ore.

But Gruden came away very impressed with Kelly. He said he was blown away that Kelly had the audacity to take shotgun snaps from near his own goal-line.

“It’s a totally different way of attacking, a totally different philosophical style than I’ve ever seen,” Gruden said.

He intends to have his son, Jon (nicknamed “Deuce”), attend Kelly’s football camp next summer.

As for tomorrow’s game, Gruden said he gives a slight edge to Oregon. He said he’d feel differently if the game were played in less-ideal weather.